Friday, April 9, 2004
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Friday, April 9, 2004 |
| Judge: DAPC didn’t discriminate against Rapson By JOHN MUNFORD A federal court judge has ruled that the Development Authority of Peachtree City did not discriminate against former amphitheater director Kristi Rapson by paying her less than tennis center director Virgil Christian. Rapson resigned in 2001, claiming philosophical differences with the authority. Three months later she filed the suit, claiming the all-male authority discriminated her by paying Christian a higher amount of compensation. In a 14-page order, U.S. District Judge Jack T. Camp noted that the amphitheater and tennis center director’s positions “are not substantially equal in terms of skill, effort and responsibility.” “The difference in total compensation stems from the greater skill, effort and responsibility required at the tennis center,” Camp wrote. The judge noted that the amphitheater is closed to the public five months a year but the tennis center is open year-round except for Christmas day. He also noted that Rapson supervised 11 fewer full-time employees than Christian and that she also worked fewer hours on average than Christian did. Tate Godfrey, the former chairman of the development authority, said he was pleased the courts agreed with the authority’s position. Former development authority member Scott Bradshaw, who played a key role in overseeing the amphitheater for the authority, agreed. “The development authority has always maintained that the $83,000 a year that Mrs. Rapson was earning at the time she resigned was appropriate,” Bradshaw said. Rapson said she planned to appeal the judge’s decision to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals. “It’s disappointing, but I do feel a sense of justice,” Rapson said. “Since I filed the lawsuit, all the authority members responsible for the discrimination and retribution I experienced have resigned.” Rapson said she would file the suit again even now that she knows the outcome. “If I had had the unlimited funds they thought they had, we’d be talking a different ballgame,” Rapson said. “For me, it always came to down to one question: ‘Would a man have been treated the way I was treated?’ And the answer to that is, absolutely not.” Rapson also claimed in the suit that the authority retaliated against her by reducing her job duties and taking away her ability to hire and fire employees after she complained about her compensation package compared to Christian’s. Camp determined those actions taken by the authority were “typically employed by large organizations with multiple managerial levels to ensure fiscal control. “Written performance reviews and advance approval of financial budgets and unbudgeted expenditures are not unusual methods for properly managing an organization like that of defendant,” Camp wrote. Christian was later promoted to executive director of the development authority, but he resigned last year as the authority came under heavy political fire for its actions in running the tennis center and amphitheater for the city.
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